Description du projet
Une technologie permettant de produire de l’eau potable à partir de l’air
L’exploitation des 140 quadrillions de litres d’eau présents dans l’atmosphère pourrait permettre de remédier à la pénurie actuelle d’eau potable. De récents développements technologiques avancés ont permis de développer une technologie économiquement viable pour récolter cette eau. La start-up ThinAir a développé un matériau optimisé pour la capture de l’eau atmosphérique et a rigoureusement prouvé cette technologie à l’Imperial College de Londres. La technologie de surface ThinAirWater est actuellement au niveau TRL 6 et s’inspire du coléoptère du désert namibien qui récupère l’eau transportée par la brume. Le projet ThinAirWater, financé par l’UE, lancera la technologie en tant que composant matériel dans les générateurs air-eau existants, améliorant leur efficacité pour répondre à un plus grand nombre de marchés et de climats, augmenter leur rendement de production d’eau et réduire leur coût par litre.
Objectif
Drinking water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. Of all the options for future drinkable water, harnessing the 140 quadrillion litres of water in the atmosphere represents one of very probable and abundant sources. Clouds and fog in the atmosphere contain more than enough fresh water to sustain every person on earth. With recent cutting-edge developments, an economically viable technology for harvesting this water is becoming available.
ThinAir, a start-up has created a material optimised for capturing atmospheric water by enhancing the ability of water condensation through the surface structure optimisation. The technology has been rigorously proven at Imperial College London and is >94% more efficient at condensing and harnessing water vapour than the best currently available alternatives.
Our founding team consists of Jonathan Risley (CEO) with a background in biotechnology and management. Samuel Bruggen (CTO) is specialized in biochemistry and with a business innovation masters. Ben Kirk (CSO) holds an MBA from the Imperial Business School and is in charge of the business strategy to commercialisation. We are supported by advisors who give us business guidance and connections in the industry.
The ThinAirWater surface technology is currently at a TRL 6 and takes inspiration from the African fogstand beetle. The team have mimicked the beetle to produce a scalable, sustainable and deployable material, which can be implemented within a range of markets to enhance water generation from the atmosphere. The first application is an integration into dehumidifiers to improve on their energy efficiency at water condensation, we later plan to implement this technology to help drive the progression of the atmospheric water generation market for clean drinking water production from the air.
To start commercialization, we will launch our technology as a material component in existing Air-to-Water generators, providing an increase in efficiency that enables them to address a wider array of markets and climates, but most importantly increase their yield of water production, whilst bringing down their cost per litre.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistry
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processesdrinking water treatment processes
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetary geology
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicstopology
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
W120BZ LONDON
Royaume-Uni
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.